Free teaching resource

Distinguish an Inference from a Guess

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Audience / fit: Grade 6 ELA
Teaching or planning target: Separate stated details, supported inferences, and guesses; explain what the text leaves uncertain.
Essential prerequisites: Learners can read or listen to a short fictional passage and point to a sentence or phrase. No prior formal lesson on inference is required.
Preparation: About 5 minutes.
Use time: About 45 minutes. Planning estimate: opening 3 minutes, strategy 5, model 8, guided practice 10, independent response 14, closure 5.
Materials: Learner pages in print or editable format; the PPTX is optional. Pencil or another locally approved response method. Board or display for the model; optional.
What to print: Use the stage-specific student choices below and the matching teacher guide. Give independent, new-evidence and later-assessment pages only at their intended stage.

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Model and guided practice · PDF (4 pages)

Read the teacher guide and answers · PDF (9 pages)

Print model and guided practice first. Keep the independent response with the teacher until guided practice is complete. Use the complete teacher guide for the named task’s criteria and answers.

Editable Word, browser copies and other files

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In this 45-minute lesson, learners distinguish a directly stated detail, an inference supported by text, and an unsupported guess; explain how a detail supports an inference; and compare two defensible possibilities while naming what the text does not establish.

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Who it is for: Grade 6 ELA
Preparation: About 5 minutes.
Teaching time: About 45 minutes. Planning estimate: opening 3 minutes, strategy 5, model 8, guided practice 10, independent response 14, closure 5.
Teacher guidance: Separate teacher files include completed examples or answer and scoring guidance.

Materials

Learner pages in print or editable format; the PPTX is optional.
Pencil or another locally approved response method.
Board or display for the model; optional.

Choose a stage and format

Give only the stage being used. Keep later tasks and all teacher keys with the teacher until needed.

Formats and all files

Complete reference files may include teaching, independent tasks, later evidence or teacher answers. Keep them with the teacher; use the separate stage selections above for handouts.

Read or download the complete resource

Keep teacher guidance and answers separate from student copies. Word files contain editable text; the PDF files are ready to print.

Support and adaptation

If organizing your thinking is difficult, use the optional organizer in the learner file. First write two details from the passage; then make your own inference and explain the link. The organizer does not fill in any answer for you.
For access, consider read-aloud or text-to-speech, chunked text, a clean enlarged copy, vocabulary preview, extra processing time, or oral rehearsal when locally appropriate. Keep interpretation tied to the passage and the learner’s actual access plan. Record any support that changes what the response can show.

Extension

Write a new neutral 3–4 sentence fictional scene with details that could support two different explanations. Trade scenes with a partner. The partner underlines one supporting detail for each possibility and notes one thing the scene does not establish. Do not use a real person or personal experience.

Choose a next move

Choose a route that fits the response and your teaching goal. These are links to materials already supplied, not a prescribed sequence or a placement decision.

Check for Understanding and Choose the Next Step — Use the supplied inference check, response examples and different follow-up passage to consider one next teaching move.
Explain How a Character Changes — If learners can connect clues to an inference, apply that reasoning to a character’s actions; check the different target first.

Save follow-up passages until students are ready to try them on their own. Once a passage has been shown, modeled or practiced, use it for practice. Keep answer keys with the teacher and use each resource’s own learning target and criteria.

About the materials

Use the editable files to adapt the materials to your learners and local curriculum.

You may print, copy and adapt the resource for your planning and classroom use under our Terms of Use. Report a resource issue.

When the question needs first teaching

Read the Question and Support Your Answer — Begin with the shorter question-and-evidence sequence when learners need an introduction before broader inference work.